a.k.a. kouzinovia – a greek word describing a female person who lives in the kitchen. Always.

Roasted Salmon with Mirin on Sesame Noodles

What is it about Mirin that makes everything so utterly delicious. Salmon roasts beautifully in this sweet Japanese wine and served on a bed of gingery sesame noodles, is my idea of a fantastic meal. I used 4 separate salmon fillets but you could use a whole fillet of half a salmon. It actually makes a great buffet dish. The sauce is to die for. So serve it separately for your guests to help themselves or eat with a spoon if they feel like it. I know I would.

For the Salmon

4 salmon fillets, preferably without skin

1 cup mirin (sweet japanese rice wine)

½ cup rice vinegar

2 Tbs dark soy sauce

2 Tbs fresh ginger, finely chopped or grated

2 Tbs honey

2 Tbs lemon juice

1 Tbs lemon zest

salt and freshly ground pepper

For the Noodles

250 grams egg noodles

1 Tbs sunflower oil

2 Tbs fresh ginger, finely chopped or grated

4 garlic cloves, crushed

6 spring onions, chopped

3 Tbs sesame oil

2 Tbs soy sauce

2 Tbs rice wine vinegar

1 Tbs lemon juice

2 Tbs sesame seeds

4 Tbs fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped

Method

Preheat oven to 190 C. Prepare noodles according to the package instructions. Rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process, drain and set aside until needed.

Place the salmon fillets, skin side down, in a baking pan. Mix together the mirin, vinegar,soy sauce, ginger, honey and lemon juice. Pour this mixture over the salmon fillets. Season fillets with salt and pepper. Bake fillets for 12-15 minutes.

To make the noodles, heat the sunflower oil in a wok over high heat. Add the ginger, garlic and spring onions. Cook stirring for about 2 minutes until fragrant and soft. Add the cooked noodles together with the sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and lemon juice. Mix everything together and cook mixing for about a minute. Add the sesame seeds and coriander and mix again. Take noodles off the heat.

Serve salmon fillets on a bed of noodles, garnished with fresh coriander leaves and lemon zest. Put the pan juices in a bowl and serve with the salmon for your guests to serve themselves.